Thanks, it looks like it patched. What is the embryonic stage? Is that something else or is that part of the patch?

The author liked to use weird work names with his patches in the past (larval and embryonic etc. with master of orion and Insecticide with master of magic). He later adopted the more common "game name unofficial patch version" naming convention that is both more clear and most comonly used with unofficial patches. Larval and embryonic were just version names he used with early versions of the unofficial MOO patch. As patch readme states, fixes they provided are included unless they were found to cause problems, were broken or he replaced them with something better.

Ah, everything is coming together now! Very helpful!

Strange how you said you would have war against all of them before having 15 star systems. I just won a game without this patch I had war with 4 out 5 AI (Darloks were Allies and obeying my command) and I had 18 star systems before winning the elections. I was the Sakkras also. My non aggression pact and trade agreement with the Darloks lasted all game until the end were I got them as allies because they were not a threat to me and were guarding my back. The war got ugly just because the AI was mostly hating me by my population growth and planet expansion but the Darloks didn't care and the Psilons were wanting peace but they didn't offer me their cool tech to me so I stole all of it and took them down to 1 star system.

Should not the patch version be reflected on the startup screen?

I just copied over the 3 files and it still reads v1.3

Or maybe it's intentional?

Got an answer from the patch's creator; the version number is part of the start page graphics, not floating text, hence no change when you apply the patch..

Does anyone have a link to a mirror of the latest patch? That forum is inaccessible.

Up again:
http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3417

If it ever goes down agian, I think patches scrolls had a copy

Hello,

I've never played MoM before... somehow I missed it when I was younger! I was thinking of taking the plunge, and was wondering should I apply this patch before I play my first ever game? Or should i just use the vanilla gog.com version?

Thanks

This is for MoO1 rather than MoM - same developers, different game! Did you mean MoM or MoO1?

EDIT: I see this post was awhile ago ... but anyway ... if you did mean MoO1, my inclination is always to play the base game, but since it is a patch rather than a mod, I can see both sides. i.e. The patch doesn't make an unplayable game playable or dramatically change gameplay - bug fixes and some UI/gameplay enhancements. Right now I think I have vanilla installed.

I will try an answer myself (being author of the patch), others may say their opinion.

- Short version: the patch is not crucial for a good gaming experience with MoO. Not at all necessary for a "virgin" to enjoy the game
- Long version: This was my first project. The philosophy was, to (a) eliminate the bugs present in the game and (b) to improve the AI. As for the (a), I succeeded, but the bugs in the original are not very important or relevant. There's one big fish, as the REFIT does not function. But players became accustomed to it, and it - sort of - brings a new challenge into the game as well. As for the (b), AI could be a lot better, I mean really really good. But as it was my first project, I did not know at the time, how to improve the AI radically. I still have plans... hopefully one day, I can respond here and say, with the patch, the AI will challenge your braincells to the maximum. So, unlike the other patches I have made, this one is less important. It improves the AI a bit (but it's not really necessary as impossible level will test any player), it pushes away a few minor bugs.

Anyway, if you're MoO virgin... I wish you spend your time well with this game. It seems to be very simple on the surface, but it's incredibly hard to master. One of the best, timeless classic.

Thanks for the explanation, Kyrub
I'll try the game without the patch. If I get hooked and find the AI too weak (which I always do in strategy games) I'll install your patch.

Thanks for the patch! I'm glad someone is taking time to fix the bugs in this great game. I'm just getting back into it after many years away. It's nice knowing that I'll be playing a cleaner version.

One little glitch: When a colony that would have finished building a shield is destroyed, after the battle a screen pops up saying, "_____ has finished building a class ___ shield ...." (The shield class is actually blank in the message; the first blank is the name of the planet.) Just a minor annoyance, and I don't know if it happened in the unpatched game.

Question: According to the Prima strategy guide, ships retreating from a battle were supposed to be out of the player's control (they'd automatically go to the nearest friendly planet). But actually a player can click on those ships right after the battle and order them anywhere--even right back to where the battle was fought. That ends up being an important tactic sometimes, but apparently it was just a developer's oversight. Has it been fixed? Or are there any plans to set it right?

Doesn't that create a problem? I played five games in a row yesterday (as Bulrathi and Sakkra), and the Silicoids won them all easily. Then I played a game as the Silicoids and won too easily.

Without the unusable techs: (1) they don't have those techs to trade with other races, and (2) those techs can't come along and crowd out other planetology advances, so the Silicoids can get a big jump in planetology--and it's even more of a bonus if they always get Cloning.